


A family of seven

by Abandoned Melodies (magicpiano)



Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: Abandoned Work - Unfinished and Discontinued, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Gen, Platonic Soulmates
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-29
Updated: 2020-07-29
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:26:50
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,654
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25589833
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/magicpiano/pseuds/Abandoned%20Melodies
Summary: David Rossi was born without a soulmate. He died with seven.This is an abandoned work!
Relationships: David Rossi & The BAU Team
Comments: 2
Kudos: 11





	A family of seven

**Author's Note:**

> This story is unfinished and probably never will be. I have stopped working on this project and it is very unlikely I will start working on it again. This also does not have the level of spelling and grammar quality used in my finished stories. Please read this story with that in mind. Thank you.
> 
> Click [here](https://archiveofourown.org/users/magicpiano/) for my finished/alive wips pseudo. 
> 
> Warnings:  
> References to drugs

David Rossi was born without a soulmate.

This wasn’t a surprise, a little over half the world’s population was born without a soul mark. It didn’t mean anything bad; it didn’t mean he didn’t have a soulmate. It just meant his soulmate hadn’t been born _yet_.

And that’s what his parents told him whenever he asked about their marks. That it was nothing to worry about, his would come along soon, that he just had to be patient. David was never good at being patient, it was a trait that he would carry all through his life.

At six years old he was already a late bloomer. Most people born without a soulmate got their soul marks within the five years of their life. Luckily, he wasn’t to only one in his school. There were two other kids his age without a mark. That was one perk of growing up in New York, larger population, you were more likely to find someone like yourself there. He could imagine how embarrassing it would be living somewhere rural where he was the only one his age without a mark.

He couldn’t understand why his soulmate wouldn’t just hurry up and be born already. That way his classmates would stop looking at him like he was odd. Then he could finally fit in.

But that didn’t happen.

By age ten his parents had long since stopped reassuring him that his marks would show up any day now. And David had stopped asking for reassurance. He didn’t have a soulmate. That was hardly the end of the world. He could still have a good life, his parents told him as much every other day.

Only two percent of the population didn’t have a soulmate. That didn’t seem like much, but that was two percent of the whole world, and that was a lot of people. And that didn’t even include all the people who never met their soulmates. He wasn’t alone in his predicament and he was far too stubborn to let not having any marks bother him.

When he was twelve Emma Taylor transferred into his school.

Her father had just gotten a new job in New York. She didn’t know anyone there, and when it was discovered that she didn’t have a soul mark, few of the other children wanted to know her.

It all came back to that old superstition that anyone without a soul mark must be a psychopath.

That wasn’t true of course. The pamphlets and children’s books his parents and teachers had given him on ‘how to not be ashamed your soulmate-less’ had said as much. But some people still believed it to this day.

David was lucky that had managed to make friends when he was younger. Most of them even continued to hang out with him, even after they got older and realized just how strange David really was. Emma didn’t have this luxury.

So, he took it upon himself to befriend Emma.

Emma was sweet, quiet, and friendly to everyone who talked to her (even the kids that only talked to her to bully her). She never let anything anyone said to her or about her bother her. David respected that more than he could say.

She was resilient and tenacious, and at age fifteen David was sure he was going to marry her one day.

He was wrong.

When he woke up on the morning of November 2, 1971, he found a snowflake on his shoulder.

The snowflake was pure white and stuck out from the rest of his more tanned skin. The snowflake had six points, each of which sprouted out into six more smaller points. The image was crystal clear on his skin and beautiful to look at. It took him a moment to realize what it meant, but once he did, he was taking off his clothes in a flurry of motion attempting to strip off everything as fast as he could.

He had a soul mark. That means he had a soulmate! He was fifteen years older than them, which was incredibly rare, but he could worry about that later. For now, he needed to worry about finding his mark.

Everyone that had a soulmate had at least two soul marks, one to represent you and another to represent your soulmate. The images were supposed to be representative of your personality. David was unsure what the snowflake was supposed to mean though. And very unsure of who it represented, him or his soulmate?

In theory these marks would help you find you soulmate. Although hundreds of years ago it was very hard to find your soulmate because travel was so limited. Nowadays more and more people were finding their soulmates. There were even companies you could hire to help you find yours for you.

After searching his body from head to toe he saw it. Something drawn on the small of his back. He tried to turn around, but he couldn’t see what the image was in the mirror.

He quickly put his pants back on and ran to the kitchen where his parents had already started to make breakfast.

“Dave?” His mother had heard him run in and turned around looking like she was about to scold him, probably for running in the house. She stopped when she saw the look of distress that had quickly appeared on her son’s face. “Is something wrong?”

David was so surprised and excited when he had first seen the mark that he had run into the kitchen, but now that he was here, he didn’t know what to say. He didn’t know how he felt about this either. What would everyone think of him, with a soulmate so young? What would his parent say?

“David is that a soul mark?” His father was hesitant to ask the question clearly in shock at what he was seeing. But it would be hard to miss the mark, it was right there on his shoulder in full view for the world when David didn’t have his shirt on.

David wasn’t sure what to say so he just nodded.

A huge grim burst across his mother’s face and she ran forward to embrace him.

“Oh, this is wonderful news!” She pulled away from the hug and began looking him over. “Where’s the other one then?”

“My back I think, but I can’t see it well in the mirror.”

His mother immediately went behind him looking for the mark. He tried to ignore the embarrassment of her studying his lower back so intently. His curiosity over the mark quickly outweighing any awkwardness.

“Oh, it is just beautiful Davie!” He heard his mother practically squealing with delight. His father had come closer studying his marks too.

“But what is it?” Dave asked impatiently.

“It is some type of flower.” His mother answered. “I don’t know what type, but we can do out to the library later a get some books. I bet the flower is your soulmates mark. Probably a girl too. I recall reading somewhere that most flower soul marks belong to women.”

Her excitement for her son’s discovery was palpable, filling the whole room with her upbeat chatter. But Dave could tell his father was more reserved about this and Dave could understand why. After all he was beginning to feel the same way now that the initial excitement faded.

His soulmate was a baby. The person he was meant to fall in love with was a day-old infant. It was bizarre and uncomfortable even thinking of them like that. In his mind he always pictured the person he grew up to marry his own age ‘ _like Emma’_ his mind whispered.

It was uncommon to have a soulmate with an age difference greater than five years, and rare to have an age difference greater than ten. But fifteen years? That was nearly unheard of. How was he supposed to tell people about this?

* * *

In the end he didn’t tell people about it.

His mother had excitedly called every family member, extended family member, and honorary family member she could think of to brag about her son’s new soulmate. But Dave had mostly stayed quiet about the whole affair.

The more he thought about it, the more it bothered him. He found himself wish for the mark to go away. He didn’t want a soulmate, or at the very least he didn’t want this soulmate. The age difference was just too large. He could never see himself being able to relate to this person.

Intellectually he knew this was not necessarily true. Maybe when he was older the age difference wouldn’t seem so bad, but right now it annoyed and disgusted him. He didn’t want his infant soulmate anywhere in his life. What he wanted was to spend time goofing off with Ray. He wanted to go on dates with Emma. He wanted to ignore that this had ever happened.

Unfortunately, his soulmate wouldn’t allow Dave to ignore them.

Part of being soulmates was the psychic connection that you shared with them. You couldn’t share things like thought or complex ideas, but you could project your feeling or emotions to your soulmate. It took conscious effort to send feeling to your soulmate most of the time, but with very strong emotions, they were shared whether you wanted them to be or not.

Most of the time this is fine, except everything is a strong emotion to a baby.

Every time his soulmate got hungry Dave had to deal with flashes of pain. Every loud noise his soulmate heard sent a jolt of fear down his spine when he has no reason to be scared at all.

It was getting really old, really quickly. Unfortunately, his parents only advice was that in time he would get used to. He knew it wouldn’t be so bad when his soulmate got older and learned to stop projecting so much by accident, but at the moment, it was driving him crazy.

His mother, who was more supportive of his new soulmate than he wished, encouraged him to try out the connection himself. This might be useful for other people, but he couldn’t see how sending his emotions to his baby of a soulmate would ever be necessary.

So, he continued to ignore his soulmate. And he continued to lie to everyone at school about being soulmate-less. And he continued to hope this problem would solve itself.

In retrospect he really should have known better.

* * *

For almost a year David had fallen into a routine. He decided he wasn’t going to be bothered with his soulmate. If they happened to meet, then so be it. If they didn’t than it wasn’t really a problem.

But then October came, and one afternoon he found a ring of fire circling his left ankle. The circle went all the way around his ankle and the flames were warmly colored blending in nicely with his skin tone.

He had another soulmate.

Having two soulmates wasn’t inherently odd. About fifteen percent of people had two soulmates, but to have them both with such a large age difference was definitely odd.

His mother wasn’t as excited this time, but she was happy and very supportive, insisting they make a special celebration dinner. Considering the large Italian meals that they had on a regular basis, Dave had no doubt that his mother’s idea of a celebration feast would be a huge affair. But Dave didn’t honestly think he could eat at all. His new soulmate didn’t seem at all happy with being born and kept sending him flares of angry or hurt emotions through their bond.

His father at least seemed to understand his discomfort and allowed him to go to bed without a huge celebration.

Unfortunately, things only got worse as time went on. His soulmates would keep him up almost every night with their cries. It felt like it had been forever since he had had any peace. He supposed it was inevitable that people would start to take notice of his change in behavior.

It began with Emma giving him worried looks he tried to counter with reassuring smiles. Roy, who was blunt, even asked if he had started doing drugs. Dave supposed he should be grateful to Roy for his concern, but the effect of the gesture was lost some when Roy followed up his question by asking who he was buying from and where Roy could get in on the action.

Eventually even his teacher noticed when he started falling asleep in class and his grades slipping more than could be reasonably explained.

His parents were kind about the whole affair telling him gently that he needed to keep his grades up, and that they were willing to do whatever he needed them to do to help with his issues. Even though they both knew there was nothing they could do to fix this.

Emma on the other hand was much more forceful in her approach.

“Are you going to tell me what’s wrong or not?” Emma began with no preamble. “I have been waiting for you to feel comfortable enough to come to me with this, but it seems that’s not going to happen, is it?”

“Nothing’s wrong Em, I am fine.” David replied quickly trying to shut down this line of questioning.

But she was tenacious and unwilling to let go of anything once she started. He loved that about her anytime except for the present.

He did end up telling her about his soulmates. He thought she looked disappointed, but it was hard to tell how much of that was his own wishful think imagination hoping she liked him the same way he liked her.

He ended up telling Roy too, which was good because Emma was so affined that he hadn’t wanted to confide in her that she had nearly stopped talking to him. He was grateful Roy didn’t seem bother by his soulmates, but he also wasn’t particularly understanding either.

He knew he shouldn’t be surprised by that, very few people would understand his issue. Unlike David, Roy had got his soulmate at two months old, he had no idea what it was like to have the emotions of two babies running through your head.

The idea came to him during one of his now frequent sleepless nights. His two soulmates were both upset about something babyish. With each wave of psych energy, one throws out the other gets even more distressed in a horrible vicious cycle with no end in sight.

His mother had suggested a long time ago that he attempt to use his psychic connection too. It seemed silly at the time but now seemed like a good idea. He wasn’t sure what he was doing as he had never done it before, but he had always heard the sending your feelings to your soulmate was easy, all you had to do was think it.

Dave closed his eyes and for the first time tried to open his connection with his soulmates. The first thing he noticed was where his awareness of his soulmates was coming from. He could feel is soulmates through his marks and knew with certainty that the flower on his back represented him.

He then tried to send his own calming thought to his soulmates, hoping that this would stop their fidgeting. He had no idea if he was doing this right, or if it would work. But a few minutes later both his soulmates had stopped crying out and seemed to be heading toward sleep.

It took a while, but David had finally found a way to deal with his soulmates. This became part of his nightly routine. He began calling it ‘tucking in’. As annoying as it was it allowed all parties to get a good night’s sleep, so where was the harm really?

**Author's Note:**

> Like I said, I am very unlikely to finish this story, anything is possible, but please don’t expect it. 
> 
> Click [here](https://archiveofourown.org/users/magicpiano/) for my finished/alive wips pseudo.
> 
> If you want to know more about what I had planned for this story, feel free to ask.
> 
> [here](https://feliswhiteflag.tumblr.com/) is my blog! And [here](https://lesbianjolllly.tumblr.com/) is my Les Mis side blog!


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